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Firefox Presents Potential Smartphone Game Changer; New Pediatrician Guidelines Say Not So Fast On Antibiotics For Supposed Ear Infections; John Kerry Road Tests New Role Today; Breaking Down The Sequester; Fashion Winners And Losers At Oscars

Aired February 25, 2013 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, now, a potential game changer for your smartphones. The non-profit behind the Firefox web browser used the eve of the world's biggest mobile tech conference to announce it is now launching a phone operating system.

Mozilla's Firefox system is based on standard web language, so just about anyone can develop apps for it, and. since Mozilla doesn't have to show a profit like Apple and Google does, for example, the phones can be cheap enough to sell in developing countries.

Initial Firefox phones will be sold in nine countries, including Brazil, Mexico and Poland, and that starts in July.

Snoop Dogg, video signs, we have to note that Snoop now has almost 10,529,000 followers on Twitter. In case you're curious, "CNN Breaking News" tops 10,540,000.

Time for a little challenge. Catch us if you can, Snoop. If Ashton Kutcher can do, maybe you can, as well.

Low-fat or Mediterranean, which diet is better for your heart, you ask? Researchers in Spain tracked people on each diet for five years. The winner, Mediterranean diet, especially one with a lot of extra virgin olive oil, apparently. The group's risk of having a heart attack, a stroke, dying of heart disease was 30 percent lower than the group that ate low fat diet. The New England Journal of Medicine has the study online today.

And your child is cranking, tugging at his or her ears. What is going on? As a parent, you think ear infection, right?

That means a trip to the doctor for antibiotics, but new guidelines for pediatricians say, not so fast.

Elizabeth Cohen, senior medical correspondent, what are the new guidelines?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The new guidelines are saying that they want to make sure your child really has an ear infection.

So, your child might be cranky, but maybe they're cranky for some other reason. Even if they're tugging at their ears, it's not necessarily an infection. Even if there is fluid in the ears, that's not necessarily an infection.

So, they're telling doctors, don't be so fast to prescribe an antibiotic, which can have bad side effects for children, and they're telling parents, don't beg for them. Don't push for them.

BALDWIN: But if you see the ear tugging, what else would it be then?

COHEN: It could be several other things. For example, it could be a sore throat, that's one thing that sometimes happens. Teething can cause ear pain. So can a cold. So can a viral ear infection, in which case, antibiotics won't help you.

BALDWIN: You are "Miss Empowered Patient." You have four children. What is your advice here?

COHEN: Two sets of advice. The first set is, if a doctor says, you know what? I really don't think this is an ear infection, don't push them. Have a discussion, but don't push them because you may not want them. Again, they can have bad side effects.

But if you truly feel like your child has an ear infection, you've been through this before, you know the symptoms and you want that antibiotic, really have a discussion. Don't just walk out, you know, without anything, if you feel like you need something.

Maybe say to the doctor, doctor, give me a prescription and I'll wait a day or two. And, if she doesn't get better, I'll use it. I won't use it now. I'll wait a day or two. Doctors will sometimes do that.

BALDWIN: OK, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much.

John Kerry road tests his new role today on his very first trip oversees as U.S. secretary of state.

Kerry held a news conference today in London with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. He urged Syria's umbrella opposition group to come to crisis talks in Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind, wondering where the support is or if it's coming.

And we are determined to change the calculation on the ground for President Assad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This Rome meeting is the centerpiece of Kerry's nine- country trip to Europe and the Middle East. And this. Don't try this in Egypt. A state-run news agency reports four pharmacy students were arrested doing this version. You know the deal. Love it or hate it, it is the Harlem Shake.

And this is what got them in trouble. Yeah they took off their clothes in the street. They wore women's wigs.

Locals were so upset, they tried to attack these students. The students are charged with public indecency. That's a no-no.

The latest victim of Europe's horsemeat scandal, Ikea. Know the meatballs you can get? Inspectors in the Czech Republic say they found evidence of horsemeat in the Swedish meatballs Ikea sells in Europe.

Ikea says it's own tests haven't found any trace of the horsemeat. The company also points out that all of its meatballs sold in the U.S. are made from beef and pork raised in the United States and Canada.

A lot of people talking about Seth MacFarlane's hosting gig last night at the Oscars. But what really matters? The Oscar fashion.

We're going to discuss the wardrobe "dos" and "oh, no they didn'ts," coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: From the CNNMoney Newsroom in New York, I'm Ali Velshi.

Remember the game show "Let's Make A Deal?"

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time for "Let's Make A Deal."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Ah, what memories. Well, a game show is what we've got going on in Washington these days when it comes to the fight over spending cuts, although frankly, it looks more like "let's not make a deal."

Allow me to channel my best Monty Hall for a moment. I'm going to show you what's behind door number one, two and three.

First, door number one are the forced spending cuts, known in Washington by its stupid name, the sequester, $85 billion in cuts over the next seven months. They take effect starting sometime on Friday, unless our elected leaders come up with a plan to replace them.

We're talking about automatic nine percent to 13 percent spending cuts to virtually every federal agency, including defense. Remember this because I'm going to come back to that later. Behind door number two is a proposal that's been put forward by Senate Democrats offering to replace those forced spending cuts. I'm going to tell you up front, this is another waste of time with this much chance of passing.

They're calling for $55 billion in spending cuts, and $55 billion in new revenue, most of which would come from new taxes, a tax on millionaires, the so-called "Buffet Rule."

If you'll think back about two months, we just went through this process of imposing tax hikes on the richest Americans. I'm sure you all remember how easy that was to get, so I think we've already had a drink from that trough.

By the way, Democrats would also delay the spending cuts, these spending cuts, $55 billion, until 2014, so we can have this fight all over again at the end of the year.

Door number three is Simpson-Bowles, version 2.0. You've heard this bandied around. It's an updated plan from the team headed by Democratic businessman Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, who chaired President Obama's bipartisan fiscal commission back in 2010.

Now, the highlights here is it would cut $2.4 trillion from the deficit. The current proposal is $1.2 trillion over the next decade. It gets there by raising $600 billion in new tax revenue.

Again, tough to get, but that's what they suggest, and $600 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, which is where you have to get these cuts if you want to put a dent in the budget, also, $1.2 trillion in additional spending cuts.

Now, these are three possible scenarios with just days to go until the sequester deadline and no sign of compromise from either side. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENE SPERLING, APPOINTED OBAMA NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL ADVSIER: What's been frustrating for us is our Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives, particularly, have taken a position, a very absolutist position, that there can't be one single penny of tax expenditures or loophole closings to raise any revenue at all.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: There is a responsible way to cut less than three percent of the federal budget.

I think it is time for the president to show leadership. I think it is time for him to send to Congress a prioritized list of reductions that preserves critical services.

Every governor here has had to balance their budgets during tough economic times. Every family out there has to balance their budget, isn't allowed to spend more than they need. Every business has had to become more efficient, tighten their belt. The reality is it can be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: What did he just say? Governor Bobby Jindal is wrong. Throughout history, governments have always racked up debt.

Families, do you call it a balance of a budget when you take out a mortgage to borrow a house that you can't afford to buy? Because unless you buy your house on cash, not a lot of people do, you're going to have to take a mortgage or wait until you're 80-years-old in order to buy that house.

And he's wrong when he says cutting three percent of the federal budget won't hurt because cuts that were spread evenly across the entire budget may not, but that's not what we're doing. We're not touching entitlements.

We're only touching discretionary spending, so it is nine percent cuts to non-defense agencies and 13 percent to defense. They're disproportionate.

The reason is that these funding reductions would only come from those parts of the budget that they can legally cut. That's everything from the FBI to the FDA to support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Big Bird, if you will.

Entitlements like Medicare and Social Security would be largely protected and that's where any dent in the debt would have to be made.

So, be careful about things that you hear from politicians in the next few days telling you what is and what isn't.

I'll keep telling you what is and isn't here, 3:35 every week day.

From the CNNMoney Newsroom, that's it for me. Same time tomorrow. I'm out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, time to talk winners and losers of Oscar night. And I'm not talking film. I'm talking fashion.

Joining me now, fashion designer Mychael Knight, a former competitor on "Project Runway." I loved your season. What did you finish, fourth?

MYCHAEL KNIGHT, FASHION DESIGNER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Yes, but still, you finished. It was amazing.

And my friend Monte Durham, "Say Yes To the Dress, Atlanta." Good to see you back in the studio.

So, gentlemen, we did a little Q&A ahead of time, so we can get filled in on your best and worst dressed from last night.

So, it turns out you guys actually, the top of your worst list and your best list was voila, Zoe Saldana, pale strapless piece from a French designer.

You loved it, Mychael.

KNIGHT: I thought it was gorgeous. That hand-detailed floral work on top, it was just a really interesting shape, you know? And I'm kind of a sucker for a belted gown. I just like belted gowns.

BALDWIN: Do you think it came with the gown or she threw it on?

KNIGHT: I really can't tell. I see it's kind of fashioned and kind of styled in a certain way. The fabric seemed to match, but I'm not quite sure.

But I thought it was interesting. It really good to see something new.

BALDWIN: And was it a -- would you say it was risky? You say, yes, it was risky, too risky.